revit in plain english

Tuesday, February 10, 2015

First of all, making software is very hard and complicated and I am very grateful of the hard working and caring people at Autodesk. This is mostly a re-post from 2011, yes that long ago. Since then I have trained over 1000 people in Revit and consulted on over 1 million sf of Revit projects, many now constructed. Along the way I have observed certain questions/issues/requests/frustrations that come up repeatedly. I am re-posting this to emphasize where Autodesk has improved Revit and what they still need to do in my opinion. I am aware that there are apps and bits and pieces of software which do some of what I'm asking for but this needs to be thoughtfully integrated into Revit. I have not seen the Beta so maybe some of this is already done, which would be great. Please add to this list in the Comments.

Open the Revit Database Already!

Most of my wishes revolve around opening up the Revit database, some specific examples:

-Schedules which can query anything from any category. i.e. list everything in a particular room.

-Tags which are able to read data from other objects and categories i.e. Doors reading Room numbers.

-Universal Search. Search by multiple conditions and save searches. Or just start typing a find anything. (you can search the Project Browser now)

-Schedules to include Family thumbnails.-They checked this one off the list. Maybe the next improvement is to combine Legend views with Schedules, add tagging to Legend Components while you're at it :-)

Other Stuff

-Edit Family button for Annotation i.e. Levels and View Titles.

-Walls which have a 'centreline' built in for various uses ie.fire rating plans

-Automated lineweight control based upon distance

- Site tool enhancements.(Did they give us this one? Sorry but the Eaglepoint stuff is just too complicated)
-Two Click Revision Bubbles (Yay, we have this)
-Spell check that checks all of the spelling
-Phase filters that show multiple phases backward. Allow for more Graphic Control over previous and future Phases.
-Universal Annotation Settings Interface

Thursday, January 29, 2015

When you drag a view onto a Revit sheet the default Viewport is 'Title W Line'. Although there is no 'Set Default Viewport' button you are able to set one default Viewport. You can do this by renaming and editing the properties of the current default Viewport (Title W Line).